Focus on Colombia: bioinputs industry seeks to close the gap

Despite the country's long tradition in the use of bioinputs for agriculture, today these products do not exceed 5% of the total market for agricultural inputs. A low share that the government is seeking to reverse due to the global situation of fertilizers and the need to activate new crops with export potential.

Ximena González 

El desafío de Octavio González es encontrar nuevos microorganismos que puedan ser utilizados para ayudar en la producción en el campo. “Los Bacillus, el Trichoderma y la Beauveria ya se han trabajado mucho”, dice cuando explica su plan para producir nuevas formulaciones para controlar plagas y enfermedades en los cultivos. “Queremos salir de los microorganismos tradicionales y desarrollar nuevos biocontroladores”.

"We want to move out of traditional microorganisms and develop new biocontrollers."

Octavio González, research and development director of Abonamos S.A.S.

His quest as director of research and development at Abonamos S.A.S. is part of a larger effort by Colombian researchers and scientists to develop a local industry of biological solutions for the country's agriculture. Today there are 248 companies registered with the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) that locally produce and market bioinputs for agricultural use. In 2020 there were 235.

This is in order to nurture and protect a growing agricultural export industry that is increasingly dependent on these alternatives to the petroleum-based chemical agents that have usually been used to fertilize and protect crops.

"Among the sectors that have boosted the use of bioinputs are Hass avocado, passion flowers, blueberries, bananas, coffee and other export products," says Nicolás Cock Duque, president of BioProtección Global, the international federation of national biocontrol associations. "This growth in agroexports is not only due to the residuality issue; it is also because producers are opting for bioinputs as a good performance alternative."

"Demand for biologics has accelerated in the wake of chemical fertilizer shortages and brutal price hikes."

Nicolás Cock Duque, president of BioProtección Global

According to distinguished academic Marina Sánchez, leader of the Agroecology research group at the National University of Colombia (UNAL) Palmira branch, there is an additional reason that has led to exporters being the ones to promote these solutions. "Export agriculture in Colombia focuses mainly on monocultures, which erodes the quality of ecosystems and their defense mechanisms," he says. "This is conducive to the emergence of pests and pests which leads them to seek biological alternatives in the face of increasing restrictions on pesticides and fungicides in international markets."

"Agriculture has developed a dependence on petroleum-derived agrochemical inputs that cause their prices to rise when the price of a barrel rises."

Marina Sánchez, leader of the Agroecology research group at UNAL, Palmira.

Entre tanto, Jaime Rubio, Gerente Nacional de Ventas en BASF agrega que, “la tendencia más grande en el uso de bioinsumos se está dando en cultivos bajo invernadero, pero no quiere decir que no estén indicados en cultivos a campo abierto. Por ejemplo, en café hay una tendencia para el control de broca con Beauveria bassiana y en general, básicamente en cultivos de exportación, en donde los registros de los agroinsumos tradicionales son más estrictos en todo lo que tiene que ver con residuos en el producto final”.

The cyclical factor in a millenary tradition

A bioinput is a product derived from a biological source that can be used to fertilize, nourish or protect fields. "It is a living being, just like our microorganisms or our beneficial insects, which can be used for different purposes," says Paola Cuartas, head of Agrosavia's bioproducts department. "To improve crop productivity by ensuring better mobilization or availability of nutrients in the soil, but also by controlling different insects or diseases that may be affecting productivity."

"A bioinput is a living being, such as our microorganisms or our beneficial insects, which can be used for different purposes."

Paola Cuartas, head of Agrosavia's bioproducts department.

Its use on crops is a centuries-old tradition in Colombia and has its roots in indigenous and Afro-American cultures, says Marina Sanchez of UNAL. However, it has recently been boosted by the high prices of traditional fertilizers due to the restrictions generated by the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. "Agriculture has developed a dependence on agrochemical inputs derived from petroleum, which makes their prices go up when the price of a barrel rises," says the academic. "The recent strengthening of the biological is a return to the land, to the farm, which seeks to end that dependence."

A point with which Cock Duque agrees. "The demand for biologics has accelerated as a result of the shortage of chemical fertilizers and the brutal hikes in prices," he says. "In Colombia we are also seeing this in a very evident way." He points out that this is not only seen by the initiative of farmers and the guilds of the different crops. Also from the national government itself, which is calling bioinput manufacturers to be able to consolidate and have clarity on the available supply to meet the expected shortages.

"The current situation has generated shortages of agrochemicals in general: fertilizers and pesticides, and within the group of pesticides, particularly fungicides and herbicides have had an exorbitant increase in prices," says Octavio Gonzalez of Abonamos, highlighting the growing need among farmers to not be so dependent on agrochemicals. "Today there is more awareness towards the use of biologicals within production systems."

Small stake

However, in the face of all this development potential, Cock Duque, stresses that bioinputs currently represent only between 4% or 5% of the total market and clearly, he says, there is no installed capacity today that is in a position to replace chemicals from one day to the next. "That figure means that today 95-96% of the market is chemical solutions," he says. "However, we do notice a much more accelerated demand for this type of solutions that are not as affected in their production costs, as are those products that are imported and are exposed to the exchange rate, the volatility of oil prices, the issue of supply chains and the shortage of containers."

Regarding the players in the bioinputs market in the country, Cock emphasizes that there are a number of manufacturers that have supported the initial development of technologies that have proven their effectiveness, relevance and competitiveness. "These manufacturers today are able to support or solve a larger portion of the needs that farmers have in terms of biologicals, that is, they are able to begin to complement or make less critical this very high dependence we have on synthetic inputs," he says. Of the 248 companies registered today as suppliers of bioinputs, 132 are producers. It is worth noting that in 2009 there were a total of 90 companies registered, most of which were only importers. According to information from the ICA, while in 2016 there were 1,509,841 million kilograms of bioinputs produced in Colombia, in 2020, production reached a growth of 80.2% with a total of 2,042,291 million kilograms (646,502 liters of bioinputs).

A nivel de uso, las cifras de BioProtección Global señalan que, en Latinoamérica, actualmente, Colombia es el cuarto país que más consume bioinsumos. La mayor parte es de Brasil con el 48,7% del total regional. Le sigue México, con 24,7% y Argentina, con 16,4%. Más atrás está Colombia, con 4,1%, seguido muy de cerca por Chile, que se lleva el 3,7%.

The growth ahead

The figures are expected to increase. According to the Bioeconomy Plan 2030 of the Ministry of Science, it is projected that the bioeconomy will contribute 10% to GDP by 2030 and that, by that same year, there will be more than 500 bioproducts that include new active ingredients, bioproducts in pre-commercial and commercial stages and extensions of registrations to new national and international markets.

"There are more and more ICA registrations for bioinputs that are being approved, as well as new players, both national and international, that are entering the Colombian market. Unfortunately in the sector there is a lot of informality and a lot of piracy of poor quality products and, unfortunately, this is a very big enemy of the companies that do a good job, that do research, development, quality control, that are legal in all senses", says the president of BioProtección Global.

For his part, Carlos Sepúlveda, marketing manager at BASF adds that, "professional formulations are entering the market, specialized products, and for that reason multinational companies have entered the market, with high innovation, high technology, which not only have a biological, but have certain strains with an industrial and technified process that make them more biologically active and have a better result in the field".

"Very soon we will have a seed inoculant on the market, which is going to make the seeds when germinating develop a better root system and be able to take up nitrogen better, that is, to nourish themselves naturally and more efficiently."

Carlos Sepúlveda, marketing manager at BASF.

La compañía de origen alemán es uno de los ejemplos de la transformación que se está viendo en este sector al pasar a complementar sus formulaciones agroquímicas con biológicas. BASF ya tiene en Colombia algunos productos en el mercado, como un extracto botánico para el control de ácaros y nemátodos. “Además, muy pronto tendremos en el mercado un inoculante de semilla, que va a hacer que las semillas al germinar desarrollen un mejor sistema de raíces y puedan tomar mejor el nitrógeno, es decir, nutrirse de forma natural y de forma más eficiente”, dice Carlos Sepúlveda, Gerente de Mercadeo en BASF. Agrega que lanzará un fungicida biológico para el control de Botrytis en tomate y en flores. 

For his part, the research and development director of Abonamos S.A.S. indicates that the market has changed and more than the market, consumers are changing and this has made companies migrate to bioinputs. "We as a company have been very focused on plant nutrition, soil management and sustainability where we focus on organic conditioners, amendments and organic mineral fertilizers". 

He says that, in addition, the company has been very focused on the business of microorganisms or biologicals for plant nutrition. "In plant nutrition we work with mycorrhizae-forming fungi such as mycorrhizal inoculums, nitrogen-fixing inoculums, phosphorus solubilizers or microorganisms that transform organic matter. That has been our focus," says Octavio González and emphasizes that the bioinputs they work with are also aimed at plant nutrition.

Crops in urgent need

Según la entidad de investigación estatal Agrosavia, hay sectores productivos que aún carecen de soluciones biológicas. Es el caso de los cultivos de mango, limón, arándanos, uchuva, pitahaya, gulupa, piña, naranja, toronja y mandarina. Se trata de productos con amplio potencial exportador, pero que tienen pocas opciones biológicas para resolver los problemas identificados, donde prevalecen mosca de la fruta, HLB, mosca del mediterráneo, Fusarium, cochinilla y antracnosis.

 "We have been able to observe that although there is low availability of products for these fruit trees, there are bioinputs that have been developed for other production systems, so their potential should be explored to make extensions of registration for pest control in common," says Martha Gomez, expert in development and formulation of bioinputs in Agrosavia. "Colombia, before opening new export markets, must ensure that we can really meet the needs of pest and disease control through the use of bioinputs."

"In Colombia, before opening new export markets, we must guarantee that we can really supply the needs of pest and disease control through the use of bioinputs."

Martha Gómez, expert in development and formulation of bioinputs at Agrosavia

A complementary survey conducted by the entity among 200 bioinput companies found that there are no solutions in the pipeline for these challenges. Although among them they identified 32 products under development, only 11 are close to the problems of these production systems, but none of them indicate it directly in their registration.

 In any case, Marina Sanchez says that much of the development of biologics in Colombia continues to occur on the same farms, with the materials farmers have on hand. "Colombia is a country with very fertile soils and diverse agroecosystems that generate their own solutions for nutrition and control," she says. "It is key that this also continues to develop so that agriculture does not move from dependence on one industry to another." 

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